Private and industrial buildings are often covered with vines and other climbing plants or creeper plants such as vine and ivy. Because climbers and creeper plants grow vertically and horizontally and cling to upright surfaces, they can be used to provide masses of foliage which are useful to cover walls, trees, fences, etc. Although covering a building with creeper plants may improve the aesthetics of the building, creeper plants are invasive, and they must be regularly trimmed in order to prevent them from growing on roofs, windows, or any other surface where their presence is not desired. For example, creeper plants quickly reach mouldings, grow inside gutters, thereby preventing rain water from properly being drained by the gutter, and quickly grow over and between the tiles of the roof, thereby preventing rain water from correctly flowing to the gutter and thereby jeopardizing the water tightness of the building. In the long term, the presence of such badly-maintained creeper plants therefore results in damage of the building on which they grow.
To limit the growth of climbing plants, it is known practice to manually cut the shoots, using secateurs, shears, scissors, etc. This trimming method needs to be repeated several times a year. Manual trimming is slow and time-consuming, which consequently increases the costs associated with the maintenance of the vines and other creeper plants. Additionally, as it is often desired that the creeper plants cover a wall up to its upper part while preserving the roof and the gutter from the vegetation, ladders and scaffolding are necessary to trim the vegetation at the outskirts of the roof and at positions high above ground level. It is clear that the use of ladders and/or scaffolds increases the risk of an accident during the maintenance of the creeper plants and that the method is slow and expensive.
WO2006040326 discloses a device and the related process for limiting the growth of climbing plants on a surface. The device comprises a set of conductive elements arranged on and electrically isolated from the façade of a building. The conductive elements are electrically connected to a generator of voltage pulses. Vines and ivy will then grow until they contact one of the conductive elements. The voltage pulses delivered by the generator will cause an electrical current to flow through the contacting creeper plant. As a result of this current, young shoots in contact with the conductive element are destroyed.